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By JAMON SMITH | Special to the Reporter

MONTEVALLO – The University of Montevallo’s online graduate education programs in the College of Education and Human Development ranked in the top 100 in the nation and in the top four in Alabama, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Online Graduate Programs rankings.

UM’s national ranking of 97 is an improvement from last year by 11 ranks.

U.S. News assessed 345 schools in the best online master’s in education programs rankings – nine did not receive rankings – based on a variety of objective factors, such as student engagement, faculty credentials, services and technologies.

Dr. Jennifer Alexiou-Ray, director of UM’s graduate studies, said Montevallo has been counted as one of the nation’s best online graduate education programs for several years now, and it’s an accomplishment they’re proud of.

“UM has allowed this department to create a quality online education program that has excelled in educator preparation,” Alexiou-Ray said. “As we do in the classroom, we enrich online experiences by helping students feel like they’re actually in a physical classroom with one-on-one and face-to-face interaction between professors and peers, even in a digital environment.

“This year we added a new online master’s program, applied instruction, to our lineup that has previously included the professional educator master’s and the master’s in instructional leadership,” Alexiou-Ray continued. “The College of Education and Human Development is taking what we were doing well with our previous online master’s degrees and translating that into a broader range of offerings for individuals across many different educational settings.”

Designed for individuals looking to complete or further their education, the Best Online Programs include rankings of bachelor’s programs as well as the following master’s-level disciplines: MBA, business (non-MBA), computer information technology (including computer science), criminal justice/criminology, education, engineering and nursing.

While the methodologies are different for each discipline, they all incorporate metrics specific to online learning. The rankings only include degree-granting programs that are offered primarily online by regionally accredited institutions.

“Most of the undergraduate programs in the Best Online Programs rankings are degree completion programs, meaning the vast majority of their students already have some college credit,” said Liana Loewus, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. “The methodologies are developed with those students in mind, setting these rankings apart from those that are focused on recent high school graduates pursuing higher education for the first time.”

U.S. News & World Report is the global leader in quality rankings that empower consumers, business leaders and policy officials to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives and communities.

Since September 2020, the University of Montevallo has waived the ACT/SAT score requirement for admission and will continue to do so through the fall 2024 semester. Scholarships are offered to students based on their high school GPA.